Guides
How to check which businesses AI names for your trade in your town
Open ChatGPT, Google, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot and ask each one the question your customer would ask, in plain words, with your town in it. Write down who each one names, with the date. Ask the same questions next month and you have a dated record of where you stand.
When someone asks an AI who to call, the answer usually names three to five businesses. This is how to find out whether you are one of them. It is the do-it-yourself version of the AI baseline in our GEO Audit.
Which AI tools should I check?
These are the four our GEO Audit checks.
- ChatGPT. OpenAI uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, to surface sites in ChatGPT's search features.
- Google. Check two places. One is the AI Overview at the top of a normal search, when one shows. The other is AI Mode, which Google says is most helpful for questions that need more exploring or comparing. Google says both are rooted in its core Search ranking systems. A page has to be in Google's index before either one can link to it.
- Perplexity. It runs its own crawler, PerplexityBot.
- Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft reports Copilot citations to site owners in Bing Webmaster Tools.
Each one gathers the web its own way. Being named by one and not another is normal, which is why you check all four.
What should I ask?
Use the words a customer would use, not the words on your website. Ask about one service at a time. Start with the one that makes you the most money. Three shapes cover most trades:
- "Who should I call for [service] in [town]?"
- "Best [trade] near [neighborhood or landmark]."
- "I need [specific problem fixed] in [town]. Who do you recommend?"
Then ask two follow-ups in the same chat:
- "Why did you pick those businesses?" The answer shows what the AI read and where.
- "What can you tell me about [your business name] in [town]?" This shows what it believes about you, wrong facts included.
Write the questions down and use the same words every month. Change the wording and you can no longer compare one month to the next.
How do I keep my own history out of the answer?
Ask the way a stranger would. Use a private browser window. Stay signed out where the tool lets you. Put the town in the question instead of leaning on "near me."
Google says a signed-in search can use information in your Google account and that this can change the order of results. Even signed out, it still uses your location, language and device. Distance is one of the three things Google names for local results. It is measured from the person searching. A search from your office is not the search your customer runs from across town. Putting the town in the question makes the place part of what you asked.
Ask each question twice. If the names change between the two runs, write down both answers.
What should I write down?
Keep a spreadsheet with one row per tool per question:
- The date.
- The tool and the exact question.
- The businesses named, in order.
- Whether you are named and where in the list.
- What it said about each business: the phrase it used and the source it linked, if it showed one.
Take a screenshot of every answer with the date in view. The screenshots are your evidence. The spreadsheet is how you compare months. Three questions across four tools, with Google checked in both places, comes to fifteen rows a month.
What do the answers tell me?
If a competitor is named and you are not, click the sources the AI linked. Often the business it named has three things in place:
- A Google Business Profile with the right category.
- A website that says the service and the town in the first screen.
- Reviews that mention the service.
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. Its guide to optimizing for generative AI features says Business Profiles can help a business show up in AI responses. All of that can be fixed.
If the AI describes you wrong, find where it got the wrong fact. It is usually a former address, an old phone number or a directory listing nobody has touched in years. That is a listings problem, and it is the cheapest problem on this page to fix.
If one AI names you and another does not, that is normal, because they read the web in different ways. Look at what the one that names you linked to. Those are your strongest pages and listings.
If no AI names you at all, make sure their crawlers can reach your site. OpenAI says a site that blocks OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, except as a plain navigational link. Google says a page has to be indexed and allowed to show a snippet before AI Overviews or AI Mode can link to it. Search Console also has a Search generative AI setting that can keep a whole site out of AI Overviews and AI Mode. It includes your site by default, so check that nobody set it to Exclude. A host or firewall setting can block these crawlers without the owner knowing. Cloudflare, for one, lets every customer block AI crawlers at its network.
What will Google and Bing tell me directly?
Both have free reports. Both need your site verified first.
Google Search Console has a Generative AI performance report. It counts how many times links to your site were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode. The two are counted together, broken down by page, country, date and device. Impressions are the only number it shows. Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode do count in the regular Performance report, mixed in with every other click from Search. Every link inside one AI Overview is given the same position. Google says the report reached every site worldwide on August 31, 2026, but a small site may not see it until it has enough impressions.
Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report. It shows how often your pages are cited as sources in Microsoft Copilot, in AI summaries in Bing and in some partner services. You get total citations, the pages cited and a sample of the phrases the AI searched with. Microsoft says these numbers do not show ranking or placement inside an answer. On October 13, 2026 Bing added a Topics Portfolio tab, in beta. It lists queries where other sites are cited and yours is not. It only appears when Bing has enough data for your site.
Neither report gives you the names of the businesses an AI recommended instead of you. The check by hand is still the only way to see that.
What should I not do with the results?
Do not buy a tool that claims to show your "AI rank." Google's guide warns about tools that promise ranking success or claim to use internal Google metrics. It says no third-party tool has access to Google's internal ranking or AI systems. Your dated screenshots are the measurement.
Do not rewrite your site for the AI. Google says you do not need to write in a special way for generative AI search. It also says its AI features are rooted in its core Search ranking and quality systems. The fix is the same one it always was: correct facts on your pages, your profile and your listings.
Do not change everything after one bad month. One month is one reading. Look at three months of the same questions before you decide what to fix.
If you would rather we run the check and write it up, that is the GEO Audit. It is $500, credited in full toward any package bought within 30 days. If the check turns up wrong facts, the Tune-Up corrects them on your site and hands you a short list of what to change on your profile and listings.
Sources. Google Search Central, "Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search," published May 2026, updated July 10, 2026, developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide. Google Search Central, "AI features and your website," developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features. Search Console Help, "Generative AI performance report (Search)," support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139. Search Console Help, "Search generative AI control," support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16908024. Search Console Help, the article on impressions, position and clicks, support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7042828. Google Search Help, "Personalization & Google Search results," support.google.com/websearch/answer/12410098. Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google," support.google.com/business/answer/7091. Bing Webmaster Blog, "Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview," February 10, 2026, blogs.bing.com/webmaster/February-2026/Introducing-AI-Performance-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Public-Preview. Bing Webmaster Blog, "Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance," October 13, 2026, blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2026/10/introducing-topics-portfolio-beta-in-ai-performance. OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers," developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots. Perplexity, "Perplexity Crawlers," docs.perplexity.ai/docs/resources/perplexity-crawlers. Cloudflare, "Block AI Bots," developers.cloudflare.com/bots/additional-configurations/block-ai-bots.